God in World Cup Football – Or Is It Soccer? | July 03, 2010
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Dr. Pasha
Right now the world is in the grip of World Cup delirium. Nothing anyone would say that is not soccer, as we call it here in America – or football to the deluded rest of the world – would make any sense. But I do want to say that God is a player in World Cup. In fact, it is God who is really in charge.
And I want to build my case using instances, not from the ongoing World Cup 2010, but from World Cup 2006, on which the dust has now fairly comfortably settled.
When the World Cup 2006 fever subsided, the world went back to living life after soccer the way it knew how. It plunged itself with its customary vigor and zest into wars, hunger and poverty – Sorrows as the Bible calls them.
And it returned home to endless sagas of disease, death and disasters – and to its familiar ways of drunkenness and debauchery; corruption, injustice and inequality; and violence, oppression and tyranny. The Qur’an uses the expressions Zulm and Fasaad to stand for some of these less than salutary ways for which the human world seems to have such a penchant.
But while the games lasted, they were on every one’s Must-Do agenda. Millions watched them in person throughout Germany and billions watched them on television around the world.
There was talent and training and tantalizing attraction of every kind on display. But for those with eyes to see, and with a mind clear enough to think straight, what stood out most was a simple message: God Almighty is in charge at every stage of the game.
As the Qur’an puts it, La Ilaha Illa Allah! No God but God!
These are the four words that changed the world! And the clear message those four words convey is this: No one but God is in charge of this world.
La Ilaha Illa Allah! No God but God!
These four words changed the world during the time of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and repeatedly ever since – just as they had done in earlier times, from Adam to Jesus, son of Mary, may God Almighty bless them all.
And here is how.
They came from rags and they came from riches. Among the top players, there were those who were from “better homes” as well as those that rose out of the swirling dirt of poverty-stricken public parks and back streets. Predicting perfect stardom for either category was patchwork at best.
That means the correlation between talent, training and professional success will always be less than perfect. It will always be less than 1.0.
The question is while the coaches and the players may claim credit for a great deal of what they achieve, who controls that undetermined area that is in the control of neither the coach nor the player?
Most people will either dismiss this question lightly or they will call it chance. I on the other hand call it God.
I cannot prove it is God. Nor can they prove it is not. To a rational mind, the odds are 50-50. And that is how God Almighty wants it. God wants a level playing field.
God wants you on those crossroads where you will be forced to make a choice and arrive at a firm decision one way or another. Where you will decide either in his favor or against him.
And so does he say in the Qur’an: Wa Hadainaahun Najdaiyn. Fa-laqtahamal ‘Aqabah. Paraphrase: “And we made the two alternatives clear to him. But he did not make the hard choice.”
It is part of the great honor and dignity he conferred upon the children of Adam – the ability to make informed and reasoned choices and decisions. Freedom is the core on which God Almighty created humanity.
And then consider this. Is injury a real threat in football – I mean soccer? How many good careers have ended prematurely, and how many good players have had to sit out critical games, due to injury?
Who decides and who is in control?
Does the expression Coin Toss carry an element of uncertainty in it? And does it also correlate in some ways with the way the game is played and outcomes emerge eventually?
Just who is in charge?
Did a prodigious forward ever slip and lose control of the ball right at the mouth of the goal after a brilliant dribble that beat the defenders and the offside flag and the onrushing goalkeeper? Who made that ball go astray?
Did a most brilliantly struck ball by the unerring foot of a sure-shot striker ever strike the side post or the crossbar at the top? Why?
Yes, with perfect knowledge of all the values of all relevant variables a computer can accurately predict the exact trajectory and final outcome of every shot ever taken. But which computer has that knowledge at the time when it is needed?
Have some of the best players by mistake headed or kicked or chipped the ball in their own goals, as did the Paraguay player with a 30-foot cannon shot from England’s David Beckham?
The result: England in, Paraguay out. Score: England 1, Paraguay 0. Scorers for England: one player from England team, one player from Paraguay team – both players from the two opposing sides scoring for the same side, England, and against the other side, Paraguay.
When you have figured all that out, call me.
Do officials make mistakes? Did that Russian referee – if indeed Russian he was – in that England game – if it was indeed the England game – set a record of some sort for penalizing players and handing out Yellow cards?
Do officials sometimes issue Yellow cards to wrong players at the wrong time based on wrong decisions? Does that sometimes force some of the most important players to sit out some of the most important games to their side?
Does a similar thing happen with the Red card? And do these carding decisions by referees impact the outcomes of games?
You can minimize these errors, but how do you eliminate them?
You can see that I can go on and on like this, but here is the gist of what I am saying: If the game is football, the outcome is always in doubt.
And no matter how much the best coaches and players are in charge, the most critical part of the game is always out of their control. So much so that there will be no football and no World Cup if the game were completely controllable and predictable.
So what exactly is going on in World Cup Soccer and who really is in charge – of the game; of the players; of the officials; of the happenings on the field; of the happenings off the field; and of everything else in between?
In other words, this is what I am saying: There will be no football – and no World Cup – if you took God out of it.
Lau kaanoo ya’alamoon, as the Qur’an says. Paraphrase: If only people knew and understood that simple fact!
Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the Zinedine Zidane incident. But first some general observations.
Zidane was wrong in head-butting the Italian player Marco Materazzi, regardless of what the latter may have said or done to provoke him. That is not acceptable behavior on a sports field.
Zidane must have realized it was a setup to get him to do precisely the kind of thing he did and thus get him thrown out of the game precisely the way it happened. Zidane should have seen it coming. He should have seen the trap being laid for him and walked away from it.
I wish someone had introduced Zidane to that amazing formula from the Qur’an: Wa idhaa khaatabahumul jaahiloona qaaloo salaamaa! Paraphrase: “When fools provoke you and try to pick a fight with you, just say ‘Peace!’ and walk away.”
Sports are about control and no control is more critical than self-control.
But at the same time, Materazzi should be roundly condemned and held accountable for his egregious behavior.
And having said all that, does it show, even more clearly and convincingly than before, how God Almighty is in control of World Cup football, oops, I mean soccer?
Nowhere is God Almighty’s presence and power more visible than in Zidane’s case. Count the oddities, the improbabilities, and what you will call chance occurrences leading up to this episode, and you will know.
The likelihood of a Muslim – or should I say “Moslem”? – Algerian becoming the cynosure of French football fandom and of the general French population. What are the chances of that happening?
A boy from the poverty-stricken streets of Marseille becoming an international superstar? How likely is that?
And then he returns from his self-imposed retirement, based he says on a mysterious vision he had, to lead France in World Cup 2006? You calculate the odds of that happening.
And then the media and fans around the world laud him as a legend and as one of the all-time greats of international football or soccer – the blessed thing does get played with feet you know?
And then this boy from France’s urban slums – now a mature 34 and hairless – leads France into the Final against a prolific Italy?
And then he scores with a brilliant header to give France the early lead in the Final?
Chance, chance, chance! Is that your only answer to this wide array of facts, all arranged in such unerring pattern of predictability against the heaviest of odds? How sensible is that answer? How smart is that thinking?
Things could not have looked better for Zidane – and for France. Everything was going right for them. And they were both at the top of their game. They had everything the world of football could offer them.
And then, just when everything was the way they wanted it to be, for France and for Zidane, everything suddenly went wrong. The house of improbable odds came crashing on everyone’s head.
Chance? Is that what you will call it? Is that the best you got?
And it all happened in no more than the blinking of an eye.
Wa maa amruna illa ka lamhil basar, as the Qur’an says. Paraphrase: “When we decide to do something, it does not take us more than the blinking of an eye.”
Chance, is that your explanation for any and all of these facts? Then you are as much a true believer – should I call you a fundamentalist? – as a believer in God, except that you call your God Chance.
And you call upon your god – Chance – to explain any and everything you do not understand, packing your religion of Chance Worship with as much mystery as any devotee of any deity in any religion.
But facts are facts. Read them in the Qur’an. Or read them in newspaper headlines.
I am not beating up on Zidane. Far from it.
I watched the game. Yes, it is okay to watch football on television. Islam, football and television are made for each other. All Muslims need to do is to discover the right combination for mixing them.
So, I am not attacking Zidane. In fact, I admired his game in 1998, when he had a lot more hair, and almost single-handedly earned France the World Cup title with two absolutely scintillating goals, and I admired his game in 2006, when he had a lot less hair, and when his skills seemed at times a bit rusty.
And the fact that he was Muslim gave my heart an extra bit of lift. Muslims can use whatever cheerful sights they can find on television, even if the mainstream media fail to make a positive association between Islam and a most successful and popular superstar of by far the most popular game around the world.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if television voiced over a melodious Adhan rolling in from a distance in the background every time a Muslim superstar scores a goal and the stadium erupts in thunderous applause? And then you superimpose that scene with an image of rows upon rows of Muslims making a Sajdah inside a huge mosque somewhere?
How likely is that to happen in our mainstream media?
But again facts are facts. And the fact is that within the blinking of an eye the man Zidane who was perched on top of the world only seconds ago came tumbling down and broke to pieces, and not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could put broken, battered humpty-dumpty Zidane back again.
May Allah forgive Zidane, and give him the best, and guide him, and make him an instrument of taking his Deen to every home and heart that needs it in the French-speaking world!
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way for Zidane to channel some of his energies and time – and maybe other resources if he has any?
Zidane’s game brought joy to the billions who watched him over the years. Now he has the opportunity to cash in on that fame and face-and-name recognition and work to bring peace to millions by reaching out to them with the greater message of peace and joy that Islam provides, at a time when the world is most in need of it.
The Zidane incident thus threw a damper on my spirits. The World Cup Final suddenly lost its glamour for me and I hung my head in sorrow, shame and remorse.
But when I lifted my head again, I found a different and an even better reason to feel great and wonderful and exuberant. A most beautiful Aayat – passage – of the Qur’an stared me right in the face: Fa’lam annahu laa ilaaha illallah, it said.
“Know!” it said. “Know that there is no one in control of this world besides Allah!”
And as I started to reflect I began to see – and know – how everything about World Cup 2006 bespoke of that one unified fact and of that one overpowering reality in the form of those four words that changed the world: No God but God! La Ilaha Illa Allah!
And so long as God Almighty – Allah, Subhaanahu wa Ta’alaa – is in control of this world, Muslims have every reason to celebrate and rejoice. As do all other weak, deprived, oppressed, misunderstood and misrepresented individuals, groups, communities, nations and societies in this world.
END
(Revised 2010)
© 2006 Syed Husain Pasha, © 2010 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.